your body your health

[Acid, Bitter and Sad]

More cardio, cut the heavy lifting/pumping, lighter weights+more reps to maintain tone, yoga.

Personally, running and yoga is all I do...great combination for me.

[calvinc]

cheers, thank you for the info guys!

[mononon]

during the school year, i don't exercise as much and try to eat less. all i do is run a bit or use the elliptical. i usually lost weight and people say i look much thinner, but is that really a bad thing?

also has anyone here tried those new "barefoot" running shoes? i think liquid was the one wearing them in waywt a lot. i will admit they look physically unappealing, but in terms of exercising, anyone have any experience/

[CUTUP]

Okay, I have got a newbie question. So please bear with me.

Just say, someone has worked all his way up and has like big biceps, chest muscles, thighs, etc. Is there a way for him to reduce the "size" of the muscles?

I was thinking like eat less and stop exercising? Please share me your wisdom!

I have heard this many times before. You can keep excersising, the trick is to increase reps to 12-16 ( as mentioned previously) and diet. All you need to do in order to loose weight is drop your caloric intake below your maintanance level by a few hundred calories. You can go more severe, but it takes a toll on you ( ie you will feel like crap)

Have you calculated your BMI recently? Do it and drop your calories by %10 to start

I would seriously consider that before you burn away your hard earned muscle you gained. Many pounds can be shed solely by dropping calories, weight loss/gain is %90 diet. As big as you think you are ( not claiming your not) you will have better luck burning fat then trying to rid your body of muscle.

The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn. Keeping your muscle is a good thing

What kind of carbs do you eat? Stay away from the processed and go to whole grains. "White" carbs spike your insulin levels through te roof, this in turn leads to increased fat and water retention

How late do you eat your fats/carbs? Try and stop carb consumption after 8:00pm.

Do you eat breakfast? Believe it or not, eating a good breakfast kick starts your metabolism, and increases fat burning. It also stops binge eating at lunch because your not craving carbs as desperatly

I know this sounds more like diet advice, but thats essentialy what weight loss is based on. You can do cardio for hours on end, but if your diet is not on point, it wont do you any good.

I will almost gaurnentee you will be happy with the results as opposed to just stopping your training. You also have to be carefull, as you have primed your body to consume a specific amount of calories to maintain your current state. Just stopping training while continuing to eat as though you were still working out can have disasterous effects.

I know you mentioned "eating less" as an option, but thats not always the best thing. Most of the time just eating properly is more then enough, you would be suprised how much something like the times you eat can effect weight loss/gain

If you want more detailed info/help feel free to drop me a pm

[Raw]

Interested to hear peoples' thoughts on fasting. I like to keep to a pretty strict diet during the week and have sort of a cheat day on Saturday, not fully binging but eating out, having good desserts, snacking at home until 1am, just allowing myself to eat what I feel like all day. Sometimes on Sunday I would fast and not eat until dinner around 8pm. I would wake up late, around 11am and do 15min of high intensity interval training after a warmup, and then to to the gym for weight training at around 4pm. Sometimes I feel like my workout was good but sometime I feel like I was lacking energy and intensity.

I know this method does utilise the surge in leptin from Saturday for maximum fat loss but I'm not sure if it's worth it if there is a chance I might not perform as well at the gym.

[mononon]

the only issue i have with fasting is that i am afraid it may slow down my metabolism / put my body into starvation mode and hold onto every calorie for longer (i guess same as slow down metabolism lol)...

comments?

[Raw]

I use to think that but have since read some info on Eat stop eat and they say 24 hours fasting once in a while wont affect your metabolism

[mononon]

I use to think that but have since read some info on Eat stop eat and they say 24 hours fasting once in a while wont affect your metabolism

what about regular periods of around 10 hours of not eating?

like wake up --> small lunch at 1pm --> dinner at 8pm ---> repeat?

[Chinorlz]

man people are hardcore on here....

For the last couple of months, it's been p90x and removing overt carb consumption (ie no noodles or rice and almost no breads) with modest food intake and low/no fried stuff.

I don't feel like I'm sacrificing anything really (shirataki noodles in lieu of grain-based noodles are a great sub!) either and I'm seeing good results :)

[CUTUP]

Interested to hear peoples' thoughts on fasting. I like to keep to a pretty strict diet during the week and have sort of a cheat day on Saturday, not fully binging but eating out, having good desserts, snacking at home until 1am, just allowing myself to eat what I feel like all day. Sometimes on Sunday I would fast and not eat until dinner around 8pm. I would wake up late, around 11am and do 15min of high intensity interval training after a warmup, and then to to the gym for weight training at around 4pm. Sometimes I feel like my workout was good but sometime I feel like I was lacking energy and intensity.

I know this method does utilise the surge in leptin from Saturday for maximum fat loss but I'm not sure if it's worth it if there is a chance I might not perform as well at the gym.

Never liked it. Only if your doing the odd detox/fast to aid your digestion and remove toxins from your system, but these are only done 1-2 times a year and only for a few days generally

A cheat meal is good, but a whole cheat day undoes all the good eating you did all week, especially if your eating fatty and carb filled foods.

The main thing these diets dont adress ( the hardcore fad diets and just plain not eating) is that your metabolism will slow down, and your body will take the meagre carbs/fats its getting and store them. Your body will begin to think it wont get food for hours on end, so it will store the calories instead of properly utilizing them.

You will always loose weight for the first few days, but many gain that back and more as soon as they fall off the wagon. The carb cravings get extremely intense, and almost no one has the willpower to stop at just one bite of bad food.

Your body is very good at self regulating and adjusting to changes in routine. But if your not consuming enough calories for energy your workouts will suffer immensly. You should never work out on a completely empty stomach. Always have a snack, and hydrate yourself before you go.

Water/hydration believe it or not aids big time in fat reduction. Proper water intake allows the cells to function properly, you wont retain as much as your body keeps getting enough from outside sources, and you remove more free radicals from your body ( free radicals are what do damage to your muscle cells after physical activity). That and protein intake are key.

You need approx 1 gram of protien per pound of bodyweight. Whether it be from whole foods or shakes. Right after a workout, before you go to bed, and as soon as you wake up are the key times to have a shake IMO. They help balance insulin levels, aid in muscle repair, and give you a burst of amino acids.

You are right about the surge in leptin, but the meagre gain is overshadowed by the fact your not eating enough cals to properly power yourself. If you dont intake enough cals for maintanance, you are also burning muscle tissue when you fast to keep the weight down, and thats not good

[8bpc]

Personally, running and yoga is all I do...great combination for me.

I run also and I've been thinking of getting into yoga. Do you take classes or practice on your own? DVDs? What style yoga do you practice? I'm sure it is probably best to start in a classroom to make sure you are doing everything proper.

also has anyone here tried those new "barefoot" running shoes? i think liquid was the one wearing them in waywt a lot. i will admit they look physically unappealing, but in terms of exercising, anyone have any experience/

They are a bit ugly, but most exercise wear is ugly. I have been interested in barefoot running since I have read most running shoes are heavily padded for heel strike running. This enforces a heel strike style running which is not how we would run naturally (barefoot) since less shock is absorbed on impact and it would hurt more than a forefoot or midfoot style of running.

[Acid, Bitter and Sad]

/\

Mostly bikram yoga (hot yoga) or vinyasa/flow yoga in a hot room. And always in a class format, never by myself. I enjoy and feed off the energies of other yogis in a group practice setting.

After reading "Born To Run" by Chris McDougall, i ditched my pair of Asics, and switched to the Nike Free series, and i've not looked back. No injuries/pains whatsoever. I've yet to try those Vibram FiveFingers or the Newtons though...

[8bpc]

Mostly bikram yoga (hot yoga) or vinyasa/flow yoga in a hot room. And always in a class format, never by myself. I enjoy and feed off the energies of other yogis in a group practice setting.

After reading "Born To Run" by Chris McDougall, i ditched my pair of Asics, and switched to the Nike Free series, and i've not looked back. No injuries/pains whatsoever. I've yet to try those Vibram FiveFingers or the Newtons though...

Nice, I'm familiar with bikram yoga. I've looked at the Nike Free series a few years ago. I had a light ankle injury earlier this year and I've been thinking of trying barefoot ever since. I believe I've read you should ease into it slowly since certain muscles will be worked differently than before. How long did it take you to adjust to running "barefoot"? How far are you running? How frequently?

[Acid, Bitter and Sad]

/\

When i first started with the Nike Frees, i was alternating them with my old Asics GT2140, and gradually phased out the latter. In the beginning, i did feel some slight pain in my knees and ankles, but i just took them as necessary and unavoidable adjustments to 'barefooting', and persisted with my routine. Now I only run in my Nike Free 5.0, and i'm not experiencing any pain or discomfort whatsover. Planning to try out the 3.0 in the near future.
I run about 3-4 times a week, 18-21km each run.

[Liquid]

Well I did move on with my shoes a bit, but the fivefingers are still great. I have to say though, the actual finger part of them is a gimmick. There is little benefit from seperating the toes. The sole and the rest of the shoe is spot on though, get the new bikila model if you run or even play basketball (indoor floor). Haven't checked out the nike free, but the sole looks good.

As far as health goes I'm in the very unpopular strict vegetarian pool. By strict vegetarian I mean vegan without the ethics. I eat a vegan diet strictly out of personal greedy health concern. I say unpopular because "vegan" turned up 0 results in this topic, but hey, maybe Hugh Jackman going vegan now will give nutritional veganism some exposure.